Will research more on this. I'm trying to find blogs or personal feedback about it

Your kind gesture placed a genuine smile on my face, which I found myself rarely do nowadays given my dh's situation. My smile nowadays are mostly 2 kinds, one kind is the one I flash to my kids and loved ones to reassure them that I am okay and that "the" situation is being handled, and my other smile, which I show my husband to hide my own tears and fears, as I have to be well-composed and courageous for the both of us.

Will research more on this. I'm trying to find blogs or personal feedback about it

Your kind gesture placed a genuine smile on my face, which I found myself rarely do nowadays given my dh's situation. My smile nowadays are mostly 2 kinds, one kind is the one I flash to my kids and loved ones to reassure them that I am okay and that "the" situation is being handled, and my other smile, which I show my husband to hide my own tears and fears, as I have to be well-composed and courageous for the both of us.

PDT is effective if the laser has access to the tumor from the bronchial tubes and associated airways. I had looked into this as well. This procedure is done in the states. In your husbands case it would be unlikely that all lesions would be accessible this way. Continue to be strong for your family as they will benefit greatly as a result.

I had laser lung surgery with Dr. Ladas in London. Fantastic Dr, staff, and hospital. He did one lung in Oct. and the other in Nov., about 4 weeks apart. I flew home in between the two surgeries. Had to stay in London for two weeks from day of surgery without complications. Unfortunately, I had a recurrence in both lungs in mid-Dec. But he was able to resect all that was seen on CT at the time. Cost was twice as much as Germany but well worth it for me. No language barrier and London is very similar to living in the US.

Sophy wrote:There are a few hospitals in Germany which do this procedure. I was operated on in the one in Coswig by Professor Rolle. If you do a google search you will find their current phone number etc.

i had my surgery January 2014 and they said cost would be about 25,000 Euros (I think) which was payable in advance with excess refunded or additional payment at end of stay, it was 26 Euros less.

First thing to do is phone them now. They told me that Prof Rolle needed to see my CT scan images to decide if he could operate on me which I couriered to him and he emailed me back within a week.

There is also the option of having surgery in London using the same laser technique carried out by George Ladas at the Royal Brompton hospital. It costs over twice as much as Germany but in my experience he was more thorough and more willing to take out difficult mets and re-operated on my left lung for a met Rolle had missed.

Another consideration is that there are very few English speaking staff at Coswig except Rolle and his secretary. I was lucky I speak schoolgirl German but it would have been difficult if I didn't.

There are many posts of other people's experiences with this surgery. If you search the forum for lung laser surgery or similar you will be able to read their stories and gather a lot of the information you are wanting.

Hope this helps you to make your decision

Sophy

Sophy, you had surgery in jan 2014, I see on your profile your on chemo for life? Is it common to still be on chemo after this surgery? I'm looking for a treatment that would include not taking chemo.To spend so many on surgery and still need to take chemo, is it worth it i wonder?I would love to hear from you.Ella

Ella - I am doing the ADAPT therepy as well as surgery as a 'belt and braces' approach, doing everything I can to prevent the cancer returning. My oncologist said it was completely up to me whether to do it as there isn't any clear evidence whether it is helpful or not, she said the number of people in my situation is just too small for statistics.

I find the regime easy to live with and side effects minimal. I have some fatigue and chemo brain but I can cope quite easily. We have publicly funded health care in New Zealand so the cost to me is about $2,000 US per year for the unfunded drugs I take.

Also quite important in making my decision to continue chemo is that CEA is not a marker for me and never has been. So the only way to know if I have tumour growth is when it shows on a scan by which time it would be much more difficult to deal with. I prefer to take this easy chemo long term rather than a more challenging one later.